Tuesday, April 29, 2014

I've got 5 days and a favorable forecast to visit what I consider to be among the best bouldering regions I've ever seen. It still amazes me that Rogaland is not on the radar of most climbers but I'll see if I can help turn that around.

Just one of many amazing boulder fields in Rogaland. A picture from my first trip to Rogaland in 2006.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Last year I posted about a giant boulder up in Bohuslan and I made several mentions of an amazing arete on said boulder. I still remember the sheer joy I felt when first laying eyes on the arete as lines like that one are the reason I spend countless hours scouring maps, driving back-roads and bushwhacking through brush. It is a king line on an impressive boulder and it just "needed" to be climbed. Unfortunately on the first day of cleaning/trying we were so totally shutdown that the arete became "a problem for the future" that I put on the back-burner, hoping one day my skills would suffice. It took about 5 years before I paid another visit to the giant boulder where I was greeted by wet rock but I was reminded of how great this problem looked and the arete got bumped up to the top of my list. So after returning to Sweden this yearI figured it was time to start going down that list.

At first the arete felt every bit as impossible as it did that first day but slowly things started coming together. In the end it only took one long session of work to unlock the sequence and a return trip with fresh skin and muscles to send. This problem had been stewing for years and seeing as how the boulder itself is gargantuan I figured I'd name the arete after the giant Abiyoyo. Abiyoyo is from South African folklore and made famous(ish) by Pete Seeger. This is up among the best FAs I've ever done.

Here are a couple pictures.

Thanks to a smaller adjacent boulder we start the arete at an obvious "jug" in about the middle and the problem avoids being airy. The low start definitely goes and almost doubles the climbing and will add a good amount to difficult. The landing might look a little sketchy but the risk of falling to into our makeshift landing is minimal.

Gearing up for the red-point crux. The climbing is the perfect mix of strength and technique and there is no place to take a breath until the lip.

Hold a swing then just a few more "easy" moves before the 6 meters of victory climbing to the tiptop of the giant boulder.